"Grading Smarter, Not Harder": Unit Plan & Learning Targets (A module breakdown); Part 2

Part 2

Using learning targets efficiently requires us to form what Susan M. Brookhart and Connie M. Moss call a learning target parade.   
Learning targets from a sequence of lessons will add up to a larger unit goal, or state standard.  Daily learning targets include a description with words, pictures, demonstrations, or experiences.

All learning targets must adhere to the following criteria:
1.  Describe for the students exactly what they are going to learn by the end of the day's lesson.
2.  Written in a language the students can understand.
3.  Written in the point of view of a student who has not mastered the knowledge or skill of the day's lesson.
4.  Embodied in a performance of understanding--what the student will do, make, so, or write during the lesson -- that translates the description into action.   Performance of understanding helps students get where they need to be in order to achieve the learning target, as well as giving them evidence of how well they are doing.
5.  Include student criteria for success, or look fors, in a language that describes mastery of the learning target, not a score or grade.

Learning targets describe learning, not activities.



A "parade" of learning targets leads students to a larger instructional goal.  It outlines the difference between what students will learn and what they will do.   Each learning target is building from the previous lesson's learning target.   This is where the student actively builds on previous knowledge.  Retention is strengthened and all learning is linked in the unit.

"Every lesson needs its own reason to live." (Brookhard & Moss)

The learning target parade in a unit leads to achievement of larger curricular goals and state standards.  When that happens, learning sticks (retention).  How create will it be once we can link all of the learning the students do on a day to day basis to an overall unit?  How much growth do you think we will witness once each unit is linked to each other throughout the year?  Thinking bigger, we can link the student's learning year to year, and it all begins with the learning target from each lesson.



What can we do to begin this process of unit planning with learning targets?   Comment your answer, or questions below.